Posts Tagged ‘Maurice Jones’

Hat-tip to Patrick Hayes for tracking down this photo of Snoop Dogg with the #10 USC jersey that, we all know, belongs to former Saginaw Arthur Hill standout and the people’s Mr. Basketball, Maurice Jones.

Jones, a freshman, is currently leading the Trojans in minutes played, assists and steals. He is also third in scoring.

The AP is right and the coaches are wrong this time around. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that Jones is the Great Lakes Hoops player of the year for 2010.

The senior guard has quite a resume.

He poured in 49 points in a win over Detroit Pershing, the popular pick to repeat as class A state champions. He had 39 points and for the Lumberjacks in a win over Kalamazoo Central, the reigning class A champions. He beat Saginaw three times and got the dunk in a game that proved the doubters wrong.

Saginaw Arthur Hill’s Maurice Jones, a senior point guard who’s committed to USC, is averaging nearly 30 points and 10 assists per game for the Lumberjacks.

While Northern junior point guard Shaquille Smith doesn’t have the same pedigree or attention of Jones, he does have one thing many opposing players lack: comparable quickness. Those two guards going at each other should make Friday’s Northern-Arthur Hill matchup an exciting one.

“Maurice is an outstanding player and I know Shaquille looks up to him and respects his game,” said Northern coach Thomas Tucker. “I don’t want it to be a matchup between two point guards, I want it to be a matchup between two teams. I know there’s going to be a little rivalry there though, people comparing.”

I wrote last week after the holiday tournament at Saginaw Arthur Hill that 5-6 senior guard Maurice Jones is the best basketball player in Michigan. It was a bit of a departure for me, since I’d been singing the praises of Detroit Country Day’s Ray McCallum, who I still believe is the most college-ready player in Michigan.

On Friday, Maurice Jones had a chance to make his case that he, not McCallum, Trey Zeigler (Mt. Pleasant) or Keith Appling (Detroit Pershing), is the best player in the state.

The Lumberjacks lost by eight to Appling’s Doughboys, but Pookie put on a show with 49 points and 11 assists. Appling’s not exactly chopped liver, of course. He had 38 points, 11 shy of his 49-point effort at the Breslin Center in March against K-Zoo Central.

SAGINAW, Michigan –I feel it appropriate to give the short answer, paying homage to the 5-foot-6 Maurice Jones:

YES.

Jones is the best basketball player in Michigan this season and everyone in the gym at Saginaw Arthur Hill on Saturday knows it.

Jones, who will be playing at USC next season, shredded a much larger and more talented Kalamazoo Central squad to the tune of 33 points and 10 assists. No one could come close to covering him or matching his will to lead Arthur Hill to the 7-point win.

And, if you want to know the truth, he made Kalamazoo Central’s stud, Devon Oliver, look really average by comparison. (Oliver doesn’t even look like the best player on his team, though.)

The kid just makes plays. When his team needed a bucket, he always came through. If it needed one player to make it out of a scrum with the ball, he was that player.

Are they about a team’s MVP, college potential, or high school production with strength of schedule consideration? With this list I consider all of the above. There’s obviously a lot of ultra-talented guys in Saginaw like Jordan Hare of Arthur Hill and Travion Babers of the High, but I need to see production to make this list so they don’t crack it, yet.

If you don’t like the idea of general rankings, then just consider this ten guys to watch in Saginaw this season. If you do, then feel free to blast away.

1. Maurice Jones 5’6″ Senior Saginaw Arthur Hill — USC commit is my pick for Mr. Basketball so to take him #1 in Saginaw is no biggie.

Greg McMath, his coach at Arthur Hill High, said, “He’s one of the quickest players I’ve ever been around and ever seen. I’ve been to the ABCD camps and seen Derrick Rose and all those guys. He’s quicker than those guys.”

I don’t know if I would go that far, but he’s the quickest guard in Michigan and probably, at least pound-for-pound, the most athletic guard I’ve ever seen up close.